Love Sick
by Phylogies
Summary: Rin is love sick, and Sesshōmaru has to deal with her.


He had noticed it. Sesshōmaru would have to have been blind not to notice it. What though, one might be asking, was it he had noticed? Why was it so evident, and was it important that he noticed it? Was it detrimental to his life, sanity?

It was Rin that he had noticed. The girl, now fifteen years of age, had returned from his bastard half-brother's village a different girl. She was apathetic, sighing with great frequency as she rested her chin in the palm of her hand and stared out into the distance. She was listless, lethargic, shuffling her feet along as she followed him, her eyes dropping and the corners of her lips tugged downwards. She was restless too, tossing and turning and sighing some more as she tried to settle in for the night.

It was irritating to say the least. It was such human behavior, and while Rin was human, she never really acted like it. That was why he put up with her, why he found himself caring about her, because she stood out from her kind. He despised her kind, despised her when she had first approached in those woods as he was injured and paralyzed. She was human, yes, she looked it and smelled it but she didn't act like it.

Though to say he didn't understand what her behavior stemmed from would also be irritating. He knew, he was not stupid. While he had no sisters, and it had never affected him or anyone he knew of, he knew what it was she ailed from. Love sickness. _That_ annoying condition, that ailment for which the only cure was "love", or in his eyes, a couple good knocks in the head.

"Rin," he called. He had enough, watching her poke the fire disinterestedly, sighing in sluggishness. This attitude she held, well, he would simply not stand for it.

"What?" she replied dispassionately. She looked to him lazily, a slight glimmer of exasperation in her eyes at the thought she was being pulled from her stupor. His aggravation grew.

"Enough."

"Enough what?" she asked, leaning away from the fire, setting the stick with which she had been poking the kindling down beside her. She rested her head in her palms, again, and watched him with mild annoyance.

"How you are acting. This love sickness from which you suffer, enough. It is irritating."

Her nose flared as her annoyance morphed into fury.

"Oh, I'm being annoying? I'm _sooo_ sorry, please forgive me my lord. I will do my best to stop, grovel at your feet as always. Lord Sesshōmaru comes first, forever and always." She sneered when her mordant words had fallen on the camp. He glared at her, and she sharply glared back. "You've never been in love; you don't understand what I'm going through. This separation," she placed her head to her forehead in a show of exaggerated despair, "is nearly unbearable! The only saving grace is this hair tie he gave me, and the promise he made to me before I left that he would wait for me for as long as it took. Our love is strong, and so is our melancholy when we are parted."

"Your love is foolish," he said with stark indifference. The curves of her lips pointed downwards as her peach-colored lips parted slightly.

"Foolish?! I am foolish for being in love?" She snorted, shaking her head. "Of course I'm foolish, to _you_ that is. Emotion is foolish to you, because you're an unfeeling bastard."

Silence descended upon them, an astonishing sting to her words keeping Sesshōmaru from retorting. She sneered as the silence spanned, standing up, her hands on her hips.

"I'm leaving. I'll go back to Inuyasha's, to be with the person who understands me." She turned around and began to walk, before stopping and looking back with passion in her eyes that could level even the tallest mountain. "Perhaps I'll see you at my wedding. That is, if for once you can grovel to me." With that she was gone.

Sesshōmaru remained stunned. Rin had never spoken to him like that, and while he knew she had the courage to say that because of her "love", had she felt like that all along? Golden eyes lingering on the spot where she had been, doubts and hesitations regarding her words filled his head.

Was she right?

Sesshōmaru stood two meters away from the gangly, awkward fox, glaring at the boy and the boy returning his glare with bright turquoise eyes.

"I don't recommend going in there, she's still really mad at you," he said, breaking the tense silence. "She was ranting and raving about you just last night. You really pissed her off."

"I am aware," he replied coldly. "I wish to see her though so move."

"Whatever Lord Sesshōmaru," he said, shaking his head, "but I totally don't recommend it. If Rin asks, I told you not to."

"I take note of that, and don't care."

Sesshōmaru brushed past the fox into the small hut standing lonely on the outside of Inuyasha's village. It was small, a pot and some futons made up the contents of the room. On one of the futons was the woman he was looking for, angrily shredding a piece of cheap cotton in her bare hands. She looked up when she heard the jangle of the wood shingles that blocked the doorway, and instantly stiffened at the sight of the stoic demon lord.

"Go away," she said sharply.

"No."

She stood, the cotton dropping to the floor as she balled her hands into fists. She attempted to walk past him, but he grabbed onto her wrist. She tried to yank it from his grasp, but he held on tight.

"I'm sorry."

She looked like she'd been slapped.

"What?" she whispered softly, brown eyes widened to impossible lengths.

"I'm sorry for how I tried to handle your situation, though I still hold to it that you were being unreasonably irritating. If you did not wish to leave Shippo, all you had to do was say so."

"You know I don't like the human village," murmured Rin.

"That was up to you though." He paused to let go of her wrist. "If you didn't wish to leave him, then you shouldn't have. You chose to though, so you should've lived with that decision and not acted so rashly."

"You're pushing it," she warned.

"I digress," he replied, heeding her warning. "Let us agree that we both acted without thinking and put this behind us."

She smiled a crooked smile, licking her lips. "Agreed."

"I shall leave you with your lover than," he said, turning around and beginning to walk off.

"Wait!" she called. "Um, do you think it would be possible if Shippo joined us instead?"

Sesshōmaru paused, his eyes widening a fraction, a million horrors racing through his mind as Rin approached him from behind to look into his eyes pleadingly.

"Please?" she pushed.

He sighed.

"Fine, under a few conditions."

She smiled so brightly it rivalled the sun.

"Thank you my lord!"


End file.
